Nights Gone Dark

The Fate of Squelette d'Oreilles

summary of sessions played since November 2016

Session 1: Festivity and Very Large Snacks

Session 2: Mysterious Murder

Session 3: Icy Whispers

Session 4: Kittens and Choices

Session 5: Convergence and Crossings

1

Here we meet our team as they meet each other. We have the halfling cleric Galilea Grey who is just looking to earn the outrageous dowry set for her noble fiancé. There is also Laura Mithelan, wood elf rogue out on pretense of buying exotic cheeses but who really just wants to impress her orc warrior wife with tales of glory. Next is Scorpia, human fighter and guard captain in her home town. Her oracle sister has sent her to investigate premonitions of grave danger out in the world. Lastly there is Raphaela Dirt, fashionable dragonborn bard trying to outrun a bloodsoaked past she never asked for.

They happen to convene on a humble dirt road on the way to the hamlet Tarmsworth. They join in the harvest festival games, some winning, some losing their games. Upon hearing rumor of a problem at the town witch’s hut, they investigate and fight an oversized monstrous calzone.

2

After many thanks from the witch Andolyn and her chef husband Gendrew, the party members each receive an invitation to the birthday party of the much esteemed Gilderoy Sockhart. They attend and end up fighting most of the guests, due to multiple attempts of murder. A mysterious elf assassin attacks Dirt, announcing that Dirt is her target. She is restrained but not killed. Necromancer Pathos Gloomblight, aka Roger Lilywhite, nearly succeeded in taking out his target. He did not survive the fight. Sockhart’s soul is now trapped in a magical stone while his body lays dead. His young assistant Dizra and godmother Ms. Owlbear assure the team that they can keep Sockhart’s body safe and intact while the party seeks a powerful necromancer to free him from the stone.

3

Dizra advises the party to seek out the Seven Sisters of Mystra. They are some of the most powerful magic wielders in Faerun and are fairly loyal to Sockhart. They pursue Syluné Silverhand, resident of Castle Krag in the North. Upon arrival, the city guards send the team to an old hunting lodge a few days travel out of town, as that is where Syluné was last seen. The PC’s struggle through frozen forests and battle wendigos until they finally meet up with Syluné. She is, unfortunately, dead; Long dead, in fact. She exists as a Spectral Harpist and has for years. She is a sentient spirit and does her best to assist the PCs, but she cannot fully form new memories beyond the time of her death.

Syluné is standing watch over the nest of the red dragon that killed her. The PCs venture inside and find the hoard to be nearly all melted together by dragonfire and irretrievable. Among the ruins, they discover an unhatched dragon egg among many egg shells as well as an inscrutable stone tablet. Upon inspection, Dirt finds it too be written in an unknown language she can only read by magic. It describes the domain and duties of Vecna, god of the Dead. Laura immediately pockets it. Further into the cave, the PCs discover an intricate and deadly puzzle involving stones and murderous dopplegangers. Once solved, they obtain the Crown of Horns, a malicious artifact. Scorpia takes it. Galilea does her halfling best to carry the dragon egg but, luckily or not, it begins to hatch not long after they leave. The party now has an infant red dragon to try and raise well. They name him Tycho.

4

The team heads back to Castle Krag with Syluné to regroup. They replenish supplies and converse with Qdoba, a tiefling that had her share of adventures in the Underdark. They decide to seek out Qilué Silverhand next. She is the only drow of the sisters and is a priestess of Mystra and Eilistraee in a major drow city. Qdoba advises the PCs to go to the halfling town of Deepburrow. Her old adventuring pal Kyle Yamyra lives there and knows the way to the Underdark.

They reach the town and it is in turmoil due to yeti attacks and their guard cat Lenny having gone missing. They decide to help find the cat and when they find him, he’s a little bigger than anticipated. He is a full grown krenshar and is snoozing with his new mate and litter. Scorpia chooses now to put on the Crown of Horns, making creatures below level five terrified of her. Most of the cats scatter when they’re awoken and are made aware of Scorpia, but Lenny miraculously passes the save and follows the party back via catnip provided by the townsfolk.

They meet (and scare off) a friendly travelling orc man named Gohan and also take care of the yeti. The townsfolk are happy to have Lenny back but are also almost all terrified of Scorpia. Kyle eventually gets over her fear and leads the party to a passage that tells them the way to what she describes as a liminal space with portals to places all over the Underdark. They arrive and the portal to the Drow city is destroyed. In fact, most of the portal nodes are destroyed save for three: One gold, one blue, and one black. Scorpia chooses black and the others follow. Scorpia, having strode in first, has a few moments alone in which a mechanical dog leaps from a dimensional rift and approaches her. It gives her a scroll which only she is aware of the contents (suffice to say it’s an order to do something within a long time period.)

5

After choosing the black portal node, our heros struggle through a series of traps meant to slow intruders and make it through mostly unscathed. They emerge into the gloamling town of Sphur Upra. They shop a bit, Laura deals out the fact that they have Sockhart in a rock as payment for an invisibility cloak and Gal gets a saddle for Tycho. They also pick up a new PC: Maevis, a young gloamling sorceress who is tired of the town.

They meet with the town’s oligarchs, hoping for information. They walk in on an argument and get pulled into the decision making process. The town is already bound to the Shadow Plane and there are some vying for connection to the Faewild as well for trade purposes. The PCs unanimously vote for the connection. One of the oligarchs, Juxxel Lamster, is Maevis’ dad and urges her not to get into trouble.

They also meet Sable Saelmur, a human shaman of shadows. He is a student of arcane shadow arts and is fairly disdainful of everyone who isn’t. He helps lead the team out of the town to a very scary bridge. The bridge is the capital Cloaker city Rringlor Noroth. They SOMEHOW manager to cross the bridge mostly in one piece and defeat the scavenging delver Crushstone waiting on the other side.